It’s almost unbelieveable, this AP story via Yahoo! on how Western Union is blocking money transfers to/from people named Mohammad or Ahmed. From the article:
Dubai-based representatives from Western Union Financial Services, an American company based in Colorado, and Minnesota-based MoneyGram International said their clerks are simply following U.S. Treasury Department guidelines that scrutinize cash flows for terrorist links. Most of the flagged transactions are delayed a few hours. Some are blocked entirely.
I read the article twice, dumbfounded by the stupidity. I may need to read it another two or three times to really let it soak in. Holy fucking shit. But how surprised should I be at this? The U.S. Treasury Department, still under the leadership of that genius John Snow, has really thrived, eh? It seems like the wonderful guidelines set in place during this administration have worked wonders.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Mohammad is the single most popular name in the world. It’s like John or Michael, but more. Can you imagine every ATM withdrawal by a person named John delayed or completely blocked? How about narrowing that down to all those named John Smith.
This is another one of those stupid “safeguards” put in place by those geniuses up top. How hard could it possibly be for a well-funded terrorist network to get a few fucking fake IDs. I can probably go get one quite easily. I’m confident that I could get a perfectly good looking form of identification right here in Philly in twenty four hours for $100 that could handily fool the incredibly close inspection of a Western Union clerk.
And what have all these disrupted transactions resulted in? Jack fucking shit.
At another Western Union office, an executive who deals with security measures said about 1 percent of the store’s 30,000 daily money transfers — about 300 a day — are delayed or blocked because of suspected terrorist links. Thus far, all have proven false, the executive said on condition of anonymity, because she wasn’t permitted to speak to a reporter.
Big surprise.
via /.
and have the name on it read “Muhammad bin-Laden.” My life isn’t nearly exciting enough.
This is just another case of the government looking like they’re doing something instead of actually doing something. It’s ridiculous, is what it is.
At least the CIA wouldn’t be going after you if you were a bin-Laden. Just the Treasury Dept. for the Muhammad part of your new identity.
Yeah, but I’ll bet I’d never be able to buy a 6-pack without being stopped by the cops.
It’s no different than security at the airport. It’s all just an illusion to make you feel better. If you really want to blow up or hijack an airliner, the procedures at the airport only deter people stupid enough to try and take a gun or bomb through the metal detectors. Like George Carlin says, if you can’t get a weapon onboard, just wait a few hours and they’ll give you a knife and fork.
This way, if people say that they aren’t doing enough to prevent against terror attacks, they can say they are "cracking down" on money transfers by terrorists. Best part is, it doesn’t cost anything, unlike ACTUALLY doing something.
The U.S. is building a thousand little Maginot Lines, and security theater at the airport is a good example.
Regarding the knife and fork, plastic knives just aren’t very good. A broken wine bottle would be another story.
You have no idea how much damage I can do with nail clippers. Right to the cuticle.
All financial institutions in the U. S. are required to file Suspicious Activity Reports whenever there is any “unusual” activity, meaning something out of someone’s ordinary transaction pattern. When these reports are filed, it is up to the financial institution whether they carry out the customer’s transaction or not. They are protected from liability to the customer.
Since 9/11, the number of SARs has mushroomed along with the number of people on the “extra scrutiny” list for air flights. In the case of the former, any officious bank manager can hold up your transfering funds abroad. In the case of the latter, any law enforcement agency can add you to the list that will subject you to extra searches and maybe interrogation if you try to board a plane.
Ay, mama. Every time I think I’ve already seen our reigning geniuses reach the limit of possible human stupidity, the next day proves me wrong.
(By the way, thank you, Albert, for using that lovely little word “almost” in your first sentence. It bugs me when we describe as “unbelievable” or “incredible” things that we in fact believe; of course I catch myself doing it from time to time and wince. Yes, I’m a pedant. Don’t even get me started on “literally”.)
…my teeth over this story. My stepson, Ahmed, a native-born American citizen, is now in England visiting. If he needed money for some reason, Western Union would refuse to send it to him. This is, literally, idiocy.
My hands were shaking as I was typing. Here’s to hoping your stepson doesn’t need any emergency money.
Sorry, no link available at this time.
Domino’s will also stop accepting phone orders from callers whose numbers show up on the caller ID in dirty Arabic numerals. Only Roman numerals will be accepted in their Roman Catholic city surrounding Ave Maria University in Florida.
And here I thought the Keystone Cops were just a Hollywood movie invention…long dead and gone. Alas it appears not to be so. I would really have liked to be in on this strategy session to see how this craptacular ‘plan’ came about.
Might be howlingly funny in some sort of satirical movie but in real life it becomes almost mind numbingly inane waste of time.
A friend told me this tale a couple months ago and I have no reason to doubt her:
She’s friends with a man of Mexican origin who has been working hard and saving his money. He wanted to send some cash to his auntie in Arizona and asked for my pal’s help because he had some literacy problems. When she tried to wire the money she was told by a Western Union clerk in Arizona that it was policy not to accept these transactions to or from people with Hispanic surnames because they might take it to Mexico and/or be using it to smuggle people into the US. She contacted the regional supervisor and he denied everything so she was able to complete the transaction.
Boy, would I love to see a couple of guys named Mohammad and Ahmed file the mother of all class action suits and litigate these asshats into oblivion.
From slashdot:
FUD(Score:5, Informative)
by bwcarty (660606) on Thursday July 06, @01:12PM (#15668203)
I work for a division of a large financial firm, and we are required to download a list of Specially Designated Nationals [ustreas.gov] from the Treasury Department and compare names from it against new accounts and transfers. The list includes lists of suspected terrorists, and they’re not all Arabic (think Irish Republican Army).
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/06/07/06/1610229.shtml